Scotland's last witch: Fraud or innocent victim of witch hunt?

Published on Sunday 2 March 2008 21:18

TO HER supporters she was a hard-working housewife and mother whose ability to communicate with the spiritual world saw her persecuted and wrongly imprisoned.

But now a Scottish peer has branded Helen Duncan – known as Scotland's last witch – a fraudster, who should not be given the pardon campaigners are seeking.

Ms Duncan, born in Callander, was jailed for nine months after being found guilty under the 1735 Witchcraft Act in 1944. She claimed that, at a seance in Portsmouth, a dead sailor told her of the sinking of the battleship HMS Barham. The information had not yet been released by the war office.

Her supporters lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament last week, and are hoping she will be pardoned. An appeal to Westminster failed last year.

However, Lord Moncreiff of Kinross has called for the petition to be rejected, claiming figures that show she made 112 – worth almost 3,000 today – in less than a week prove she preyed on the vulnerable.

"I have to question why she made so much money from bereaved relatives," he said. "The ethics of that ring alarm bells."

Neither was she "branded a witch" by the court, he said, but was instead tried for earning money through fraudulent means.

"If the parliament accept this petition, they must also accept that Helen Duncan was genuinely able to communicate with the spirit world," he added. "That would be a great step back."

However, Ms Duncan's family say she was targeted because she revealed sensitive war secrets.

Ewan Irvine, a medium from Full Moon Investigations, which lodged the petition, disputes Lord Moncreiff's claims.

"She was an elderly Scottish housewife who made use of her extraordinary gifts," he said.

"I'm hopeful that the parliament will recognise that but if they don't we won't give up."